This invention relates to passive and interactive advertising and merchandising systems and methods and, more particularly, television products for performing the same.
Cable, satellite, and broadcast television systems provide viewers with a large number of television channels. Viewers have traditionally consulted printed television program schedules to determine the programs being broadcast at a particular time. More recently, passive and interactive electronic television program guides have been developed that allow television program information to be displayed on a viewer's television. Promotional channels such as barker channels have also been developed that advertise various premium channel and pay-per-view promotions.
Passive electronic television program guides typically provide a scrolling or paging list of program listings on a dedicated television channel. The TV Guide Channel is a passive program guide in which viewers are presented with promotional videos or trailers in one portion of the screen and program listings in another.
Interactive television program guides are typically implemented on set-top boxes and allow users to navigate through television program listings using a remote control. In a typical program guide, various groups of television program listings are displayed in predefined or user-selected categories. Program listings are typically displayed in a grid or table. Some interactive guides are client-server based and some others are on-line. In client-server based guides, program guide data is typically provided to the set-top in response to requests from the guide that are processed by a server at a cable system head-end. In on-line guides, users may access a web site with their Personal computer or Internet enabled set-top box to obtain program listings and other program related information.
Another type of program guide is the hybrid passive/interactive television program guide. A hybrid guide may be based on a passive guide channel containing a listings portion over which an interactive guide portion has been overlaid.
As suggested above, barker channels are typically promotional channels that display full screen promotions of pay-per-view programs. A barker channel may overlay price, ordering, event code, and time information over such promotions and even instruct the user on how to order the promoted pay-per-view program.
Such systems have been limited in their abilities to integrate sponsorship, advertising, and merchandising opportunities among passive video products such as barker channels, passive guides, and interactive guides.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide enhanced advertising and merchandising opportunities within passive and interactive programming and applications such as, for example, program guides.